New Zealand Must Overcome History to Claim World Twenty20 Title

Martin Guptill batting for New Zealand at the World Twenty20 tournament in Mohali, India. New Zealand went 4-0 in the pool stage.CreditMoney Sharma/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Huw Richards

March 29, 2016

New Zealand looks like the team to beat as the World Twenty20 semifinals start Wednesday in India.

But the Black Caps, who play England in New Delhi, must overcome history, as well as two more opponents, to take the trophy as champions on Sunday. New Zealand went 4-0 in the pool stage, but no team has ever swept an entire World Twenty20 tournament.

New Zealand has never won a global cricket championship; its one title was the second-tier Champions Trophy in 2000. The other three semifinalists — England, West Indies and India — have all won the World Twenty20 in the past.

New Zealand has already exceeded expectations by hardly missing a beat after the February retirement of its innovative captain, Brendon McCullum.

“Any time you have an influential captain, there’s going to be a period when his influence is still present,” New Zealand’s Ross Taylor, a former captain, said last week.

Taylor said he could already see the influence of McCullum’s successor, Kane Williamson, on the team. “He’s taking a lot from what Brendon did, but I think that he’s also doing his own things as well.”

Williamson’s embrace of McCullum’s freethinking spirit was evident in New Zealand’s first match. The fast bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee were expected to spearhead New Zealand’s bowling against India, the host and pretournament favorite, but both were left out as New Zealand opted for spinners. India was routed for 79.

New Zealand’s two young spinners, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, have been the most effective bowlers in any team and were the leading wicket-takers in the pool stage.

New Zealand has played in four different stadiums and has batted first in each match. The result has always been the same, with its opponent unable to reach what looked an attainable target.

“As the tournament goes on, I think we are winning those crucial moments and putting pressure on the opposition,” said Taylor. “The bowlers have to take a lot of credit for the way this team has gone so far in this tournament.”

The Black Caps’ sweep in the pool stage was matched by New Zealand’s women’s team, which staged an even more majestic march through its qualifying pool to reach its semifinal against West Indies in Mumbai on Thursday.

The men’s team will face an England team whose progress has been more stumbling. It lost to West Indies, had to chase down a huge South African total and then had a serious scare against Afghanistan before beating Sri Lanka to make the final four.

But England’s New Zealand-born all-rounder, Ben Stokes, said that playing in New Delhi may give it an edge over the Black Ferns, who have yet to play there.

“This is our third game here, so you could say it is like a home game, even though it is in India,” he told reporters Monday. “I think it does offer an advantage. We learned a lot from the Afghanistan game leading into Sri Lanka, knowing we’re a little more used to the conditions, knowing it is quite hard to get going on a wicket like Delhi.”

It has been a good week for teams from England over all. The victory over Sri Lanka came a week after its rugby team completed a sweep in the Six Nations tournament and a few hours before the soccer team defeated the world champion, Germany, in a game in Berlin. Its women cricketers, who play Australia in their semifinal in New Delhi on Wednesday, completed a 4-0 sweep of their qualifying pool Sunday.

But Coach Trevor Bayliss reminded England’s male players on Monday that the biggest battles are to come. “We’ve got to remember we haven’t won anything yet,” Bayliss told reporters. “We’re in the semifinal and that’s a good achievement. But let’s not go over the top. It’s just a semifinal.”

India will play West Indies in the second semifinal in Mumbai on Thursday. India will hope to replicate the form of its decisive victory over Australia on Sunday — built on a magnificent innings of 82 not out by Virat Kohli — rather than that of its previous match, when it came desperately close to losing to Bangladesh.

West Indies limped into the final four, losing its final pool-stage match to Afghanistan after clinching qualification with three earlier victories.

It was Afghanistan’s biggest win ever, and it departed as perhaps the happiest of the six teams eliminated after the pool stage.

“All our previous matches have been close,” said Afghanistan’s coach, the former Pakistan captain Inzamam Ul-Haq. “But Afghanistan haven’t had the experience of winning against the big teams. The finishing point has not been seen yet, but now that we have won this, it will definitely help.”

Australia all-rounder Shane Watson batted and bowled well in his final international match against India, but his team was unable to stop the brilliant Kohli.

Pakistan’s engaging and maverick captain, Shahid Afridi, who greeted his team’s elimination last week with typical frankness — “I think honestly speaking we were not good enough” — will say later this week whether he is also to retire.

South Africa never really recovered from failing to defend a total of 229 against England. Its captain, Faf du Plessis, at least came up with a colorful metaphor for its tournament, which he compared to a bad dream well known to cricketers. “It feels like one of our nightmares where you are struggling to put your pads on.”

But for sheer anguish, nothing topped the reality of Bangladesh’s experience against India, when it somehow managed to lose after needing only three runs with three balls left.